Crucified Santa —
According to urban legend there was once a department store in Japan that, shortly after the war, displayed a smiling crucified Santa at Christmas, mistakenly believing that that was how Santa was supposed to be displayed. In different versions of the legend the crucified Santa was either a small miniature or an 'enormous effigy'. There's no evidence that the Japanese crucified Santa ever existed. But people here in America have, of course, deliberately stuck Santas up on crosses.
Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004. Comments (18)

Aliens Made Me Do It —
The BBC reports that the staff of the Northumbria Safety Camera Partnership have come up with the 10 stupidest excuses drivers have come up with to explain why they were speeding. Number one is: "I passed out after seeing UFOs." Not only stupid, but illogical (unless you passed out and somehow jammed your foot on the accelerator). A few of the other excuses are:
A jet over-head, not me, triggered the camera
I had a severe bout of diarrhoea
A gust of wind pushed me over the limit
I…
Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004. Comments (4)

Do You Believe in Santa Claus? —
A British psychiatrist, Lynda Breen, has concluded that belief in Santa Claus is actually good for the moral development of children. Apparently believing in the existence of a jolly red-suited man who "'knows if you've been bad or good' helps teach children the difference between right and wrong." As much as my first inclination is to make a sarcastic remark about this, I think I'm going to hold back since there's a whole slew of fantastic beings whose existence I find myself very…
Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2004. Comments (55)

Man Boobs Prank —
This is stupid and gross, but kind of funny anyway. Here's the set-up: "Penthouse Playmate, Kyli Ryan, came to The Bear studios for a visit and The Bear's Breakfast decided to pull a fast one. Yukon was blindfolded and was then told he would be able to "cop a feel". Bear listener "Man Boobs" was brought in for Yukon to unknowingly feel up."The page showing the images of the prank is safe for work (depending on where you work, I suppose), but potentially not safe for your feeling of…
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004. Comments (7)

Lava Lamp Explodes —
I saw this story on the news last night: lava lamp explodes and kills man. It's definitely a candidate for the Darwin Awards, but it also sounds a bit like an urban legend (Big Gary wrote asking 'Can a lava lamp really kill someone? Have I been foolish to turn my back on my lava lamp?') It's been pretty widely reported, so I have to assume the story is true. And I could also imagine that if you heat a lava lamp on top of a stove, it could explode, and if you're really unlucky a shard…
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004. Comments (22)

Pertannually Insubdurient —
EU bureaucrats are a perpetual target for humor. Here's the latest one. Supposedly they decided to remove the word 'pertannually' from the EU constitution, having decided that it was incomprehensible and meaningless. And what did they replace it with? The much clearer term 'insubdurience'. One source for this story is John Humphrys, a political journalist who's just written a book Lost for Words, about "the demise of the language." The tale also pops up in this Guardian article. The…
Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004. Comments (10)